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Chipping Stortford Goes Large: The Bid For City Status

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Reviews

Original Review:

Chipping Stortford is, supposedly, seeking city status and
this show is a presentation of the joys of the village by the
committee charged with promoting the idea.

Chipping Stortford is a fresh-faced and clean version of the
League of Gentlemen's Royston Vasey, a world of refreshing, gentle
English whimsy (although one of the cast is Celtic), which Pam
Ayres might inhabit.

A lot of work has gone into the script, production and promotion,
which included an eight-page newspaper selling the joys of the
village, and a website. It is impossible to dislike anything
about the idea, the cast or the show, it just needs a bit of
editing (most items could be cut by quarter to a third) and
some more committed acting.

It possibly also needs a reason to exist. It's comedy with
no real aim, which means there's been a lot of hard work to get
just an amiable audience shrug.

There is nothing wrong with the well-detailed script. I enjoyed
the idea that the knock-knock joke and pop-up books originated
in Chipping Stortford and that its one department store contained
the only spiritually possessed escalator in the world. One question
on the local pub's quiz machine asks if ten squirrels could beat
a Rottweiler in a fight. Nice detail.

But the show is commendably workmanlike rather than inspired
and this may be a result of the performances, rather than the
script.